Questions from Industry -5 September 2024.pdf

Questions from Industry 12805B24Q0645 As of 31 August 2024

1. The specs are asking for manual push button for tripping and a wheel distance measuring device. Can you clarify the requirement? Normally you have 1 or the other.

Govt Response: I want to be able to set the row length but then someone by sight determining when to trip the button and drop the seed.

2. Regarding the row spacing requirements--- the specs state row unit adjustability from 7.5 inches to 11 inches.

Does that mean the end user wants to plant 7 rows @ 7.5 inches and then move the rows to plant 7 rows @ 11 inches or do they want to plant 7 rows @ 7.5 inches and then 4 rows at 11 inches.

Govt Response: The later please. We want the option to plant 7 single rows or multiple row plots. The row width needs to be adjustable.

3. Can you clarify what the wheel centers need to be on the drill along with what the wheel centers are on the tractor.

Govt Response: I don’t know what you are asking here. We do not have anything on our specs about this. Tractor wheels cannot exceed the width of the planter wheels.

As of 3 September 2024

4. You are requesting 7 individual funnels to feed the seven small cones, but no automatic feeding system. Based on our experience, one operator is not able to dump 7 individual seed packages in all seven funnels. Certainly we can build the machine like that, but it will not be practicable. Automatic feeding system are usually for up to 6 rows and are not available for 7. Based on our discussions before the bid came out, the small cones where only requested on every other row. A 7 row plot seeder with 4 small head row cones is common practice how such machines are specified.

Just to make sure, the machine you want needs to have seven funnels and one operator seat?

Govt Response: We have 2 people riding the planter one dumps seed in 4 individual cones and the other 3. Only 1 person is sitting down. It doesn’t have to be 7 it could be 6. In the past we have had 7 single cones for 7 single rows. We do not want automatic feeding (ie bubble planter or anything similar).

5. For best accuracy and highest flexibility we use a ground driven cone drive with electric motor. We are using this combination since many years and there is no evidence that it is not as reliable as a mechanical ground drive.

Actually we are upgrading many machines a year from mechanical to electrical ground drive because of its advantages. Also, further down at specification #10 a distance measuring wheel is required, which is part of the electrical ground drive anyways.

Is an electrical ground drive system acceptable? If not, we would like to understand where the information comes from that it is more prone to failure.

Govt Response: An electrical ground drive will not be acceptable.

6. There is a discrepancy between specification #10 and #11. On one hand a distance measurement wheel is requested, but on the other hand the seed drop has to be triggered manually by an individual. The distance measurement system is usually used for automatically tripping the seed drop after a set driven distance and cannot be implemented on machine with manual tripping only. We can do manually only, or manually in combination with automatic based on distance. What functionality is required?

Govt Response: Manual only.